


Eight Million Kami

by Anonymous



Category: Japanese Mythology
Genre: F/M, Inspired by Stephen Fry's Mythos, Japanese Mythology & Folklore
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-11
Updated: 2020-12-11
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:54:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,663
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27964139
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Japan is known as the Land of the Rising Sun. Less famously, it's also known as the Land of Eight Million Kami. While popular culture mines heavily from ancient names and legends to populate anime and manga, the original stories often aren't as well known.That would be because a lot of them are completely insane. To be clear, this is a feature, not a bug.
Kudos: 2
Collections: Anonymous





	Eight Million Kami

**Author's Note:**

> This isn't an academic or religious work. This is an idle personal project, an attempt at making an entertaining and coherent story out of the multitude of various Japanese folktales, historical works, and friends' family stories that someone else can read for fun. That means it might or might not get edited on an ongoing basis as I learn more or decide to change source material for one part of the story or another.

In the beginning, there was Chaos. 

All good stories contain a bit of chaos. Human chaos, that is _—_ the drama of personalities clashing and fate interfering before order is restored. But this is a Real Story, a Story of Origins. This isn't the chaos of rivals battling over the love of a good woman; nor is it the chaos of armies moving across smoking battlefields. This story concerns itself with true Chaos, the primordial Chaos: the First and Last, that Consumes All and Cannot Be Denied. The Chaos of three in the morning, when sleep is both the enemy and the cure. When the silence is a scream. When thought is the void. 

That’s still not quite Chaos, but it’s a shadow of the reflection off the fingernail of Chaos. At any rate, it gives us enough to be going on with.

So first: Chaos. And for a long time, Chaos dwelled alone, supreme and mighty. Vaguely egg-shaped. (No reason for that. It was simply thematically appropriate.) All was, if not _well_ , at least consistent in its inconsistency.

And then, after an eternal moment, something changed.

It wasn’t gravity. Not exactly. But it was something _like_ gravity. Attraction, let us say. Bits started coming together. Clearer, lighter stuff began to drift closer to each other, while the grosser, heavier stuff started to draw together. Imagine a middle school dance, where hordes of adolescents are poured into a gym and realize to their chagrin that if they don’t claim the protection of the herd, they will be forced to _mix_ and get _cooties_. Yes. It was exactly like that, while at the same time not being anything like that at all.

One of these groupings, obviously, became Heaven. It was easy. It was even harmonious, as expected of Heaven. The other stuff though, what became Earth? Now, that’s another story altogether. 

Let us return to our middle school dance scenario, with the adolescents already separated down the middle of the gym based on whatever polarity they see fit. Now, however, they start breaking down into friends groups. Cliques. Discrete flocks of ego and id, clumping together and drifting along on the hormonal currents. This was Earth in those early days, consisting of tetchy little blobs, unmoored, unstable, bobbing here and there like horny apples in a turbulent bucket. There was great potential in those blobs, for good and for ill. Mighty things would be wrought there someday.

But let us leave Earth where it is for the moment. We'll get back to it soon enough. Right now we have more important things to focus on, for now that we have Heaven and Earth, of course there must follow gods.

In the Plain of High Heaven, there was suddenly a Thing. It was a perfect Thing, not in the way that it was flawless‒though flaws, being subjective and therefore requiring perspective, didn’t exist yet‒but in that it was perfectly balanced. It was complete in and of itself. It was male and female; active and passive; light and dark; hard and soft. All parts of it had an equal and opposite part that together, made it whole. It was what the Chinese call _yin-yang_ , and what the Japanese call _in-yo_.

The Thing considered this, which in itself was remarkable. Chaos had never been much for navel-gazing, so the fact it was even aware meant the Thing was separate and brand new. Even though they were formless, having no body, they were the first being. With the first being, there came the first thought. And with the first thought, there came the first word. 

_Lo_ , said the Thing, conscious of themselves in a way nothing had been before. _One e_ _xists._

Nothing responded to the Thing, because there was nothing but the Thing.

 _Hm_ , said the Thing, and abruptly became the source of the universe.

Don’t ask how. These things just happen.

The universe, having been sourced, blinked. It did something complicated with itself. To itself? Early accounts are unclear. The important point here is that, what with one thing and another, a short while later there were two additional, _new_ Things to keep company with the first Thing.

This was all as it should be, insofar as the first Thing was concerned. Except, maybe. A little. Well. Unexpected?

 _Hm_ , said the first Thing again (henceforth designated Thing One for the purposes of easier dialogue.) They cast their attention onto the newcomers. _You are like this one._

Thing Two and Thing Three, to follow the naming pattern, inspected themselves. Like Thing One, they too were perfect balanced and self-contained beings.

Thing One was pleased. While they didn’t specifically need anything outside themselves, still, company was nice. _One supposes this makes you ... siblings?_ [1]

Thing Two and Thing Three agreed, cautiously, that they could be siblings. Whatever that was.

 _Acceptable_ , said Thing One. _Welcome, siblings._

 _What happens now?_ asked Thing Two.

The three siblings looked at Heaven, which, being Heaven, remained both beautiful and sublimely unhelpful.

 _We should have names?_ suggested Thing Three, discovering that they had a strong sense of practicality. _One doesn't_ _know what to call you._

Thing One, who had on reflection determined they were possessed of a sense of gravitas as well as self-importance, said solemnly, _This one first. Because this one existed first. That is significant._

 _Names_ _should be significant_ , said Thing Two thoughtfully. _They should be meaningful._

Thing Three shrugged, agreeable.

After a short pause for consideration, Thing One said, _One shall be called_ _Kami._

There was another pause, while the three siblings thought about this.

 _That’s nice_ , said Thing Three. _It's s_ _hort. Short is admirable._

Thing One did not frown, lacking a mouth, but nonetheless there was a sense of dissatisfaction. _Kami_ was an adequate descriptor, but it wasn’t quite _grand_ enough. A god of great significance should have a name of great significance. They looked down at where they stood. Ah!

 _Ame-no-Minakanushi_. _No,_ _Ame-no-Minakanushi-_ _no-kami_ _,_ said the newly named Ame-no-Minakanushi-no-kami carefully. _It's a name that means ‘Master of the Mighty Centre of Heaven.’_ [2]

Their siblings looked down at where they stood. From a certain point of view, technically, Ame-no-Minakanushi-no-kami was indeed standing on the center of Heaven. After all, Heaven being infinite, anywhere you stand results in you being bounded by infinity.

Having thus laid claim to the most important spot in the most important place with the most important name, Ame-no-Minakanushi-no-kami glowed, radiant in their solemn self-satisfaction. (It couldn't be denied that Ame-no-Minakanushi-no-kami was rather star-like in appearance, which was only reasonable considering they were the source of the universe. In fact, in later years when the concept of ‘North’ was introduced, they would become the North Star, who guides travelers and sailors home. But that wouldn't be for a while yet.)

Thing Three sighed. They could already see where things were heading.

Thing Two sniffed. _One shall be called_ _Takamimusubi_ , they declared. _Which will mean Lofty Growth._ [3]

 _That isn't too short?_ asked Thing Three, dryly.

 _Good point. Then this one shall be Takamimusubi-_ _no-kami_ , which will mean _God_ _of the Lofty Growth. And you’ll be Kamimusubi-no-kami_ [4], Takamimusubi-no-kami told their younger sibling. _Which will mean God of the Sacred Growth._

 _Yes, but growth of what, exactly?_ Kamimusubi-no-kami asked.

Their two siblings ignored this. 

Time passed. The three Creation gods puttered about and got themselves sorted out, more or less. While they were the three Creation gods, it would be a mistake to think they were doing any actual creating. They did not. They were gods; they did god-like things. They weren’t the most active of gods, but it wasn’t as though there was much to compare them to. They were the first and so, lacking competition, they were the best. 

Although perhaps _not_ the most observant.

 _How long has that been there?_ asked Takamimusubi-no-kami a small eternity later, peering down from the Heavens. Their siblings looked down as well. Something was sprouting up from below, where the Earth was still bumping about like blobs of oil on the ocean. The Something looked rather like a reed shoot. 

_Did we make that?_ Takamimusubi-no-kami whispered to their younger sibling.

 _Obviously. Because we are the gods of growth,_ said Kamimusubi-no-kami , perhaps more sarcastically than was strictly called for. Unfortunately their siblings didn’t notice.

The Creation gods watched as the reed continued to grow, rising higher and higher towards the Heavens until it pierced the firmament at their feet. As it did so, its tip sprang open. Out stumbled a new god: genderless, like the first three. The new god grinned cheerfully at their startled siblings. 

_Hello!_ the new god exclaimed. _How lovely! There are older—_ _what are you, exactly?_

 _Siblings_ , provided Ame-no-Minakanushi-no-kami, reluctantly charmed.

_Siblings! Hello! It’s a pleasure to meet you!_

The new god leaped forward to embrace them. 

A few moments later, just as the reed stopped growing, a second god stepped out. Unlike its sibling, this one stepped firmly onto Heaven and planted their feet, folding their arms in the way of someone who’s done being jerked around by reeds and is not going an inch further, by golly.

The three Creation gods looked at each other. Then they looked at their new siblings. 

_Umashiashikabihikoji_ [5], Kamimusubi-no-kami declared, seizing the chance to name the new gods before their older siblings could. _And the younger one is Amenotokotachi_. 

Ame-no-Minakanushi-no-kami twitched crossly. The first one’s name was longer than their own, which was annoying. It meant Pleasant Reed Shoot Prince Elder. Unexpectedly literal, true, and so difficult to complain about. However, the second‒

 _They are named after you_ , Kamimusubi-no-kami said, noticing their sibling's annoyance. ‘Standing Eternally in Heaven’ was also a very _literal_ name, but Ame-no-Minakanushi-no-kami was flattered nonetheless. They calmed.

 _Acceptable_ , they said loftily.

So now they were five. Which was, they agreed, a pretty good number. Nice. Balanced. Three was actually slightly better, the older ones mentioned off-handedly, but if they _had_ to have a different number, five was the obvious choice.

 _If there were too many more, it would make us commonplace,_ Ame-no-Minakanushi-no-kami said. _We shall be the five Heavenly Deities, and that will be that._

 _And if there are more,_ began Kamimusubi-no-kami .

 _Five,_ Ame-no-Minakanushi-no-kami said, _is a very good number._

For a long time, it’s true, things were peaceful. The five elder gods carefully folded a piece of Heaven around themselves and made a place that could not be entered without permission. True, there was nobody else out there who might encroach on this aforementioned privacy, but _just in case._ This would give them some privacy, they agreed, while at the same time let them have some room to spread out and not be in each other’s way. 

It wasn’t hiding. The Heavenly Deities wouldn’t _hide_. It was, hm. Seclusion. Yes, seclusion. The better to contemplate their perfection and harmonize with the universe, that’s what it was. The fact that it would also allow them to hide from any subsequent spontaneously generating gods was, it went without saying, a feature rather than a bug. The idea that these hypothetical latecomers might _want something from them_ was too horrifying to consider.

Irresponsible? Perhaps. But what exactly should they have been responsible for?

It’s worth pausing for a moment here to talk about what it means to be a Japanese god. The word in Japanese is ‘ _kami_.’ Coincidentally, this is the same word for ‘ _spirit.’_ A deity is a _kami,_ but not all _kami_ are deities. A _kami_ can be a personification or master of a concept, like the _kami_ of entryways. Or a _kami_ can be a spirit who watches over and embodies a place or piece of nature—what the old Romans called a _genius loci._ A _kami_ can be a spirit responsible for watching over a group of people, like the smiling god of blacksmiths, a rather fun figure who we'll encounter later. For that matter, _kami_ aren't restricted solely to those beings spun whole out of the primordial. Mortals who have elevated themselves through great deeds into legend can become _kami,_ with their own small shrines passed down through generations of their descendants. 

There are no adequate words in English to fully encapsulate the complexities of _kami_ , a word which is both genderless and gendered, singular and plural. Like Chaos, it means too much and conveys too little. Suffice it to say that a lot of _kami_ aren’t really responsible for anything but the duty of existing, which they manage to do just fine. It's just as well. If _kami_ were built on the Greek and Roman tradition, wherein gods were responsible for specific functions and power struggles were a game of Jenga using live bodies, thermite, and lit fuses, well. It’s worth noting that Japan of today is an active volcano range. If more Japanese _kami_ were inclined to meddle, things could have been so much worse.

At any rate, it was just as well that our five Heavenly Deities did hide away. Because while they weren’t paying attention, down on the rapidly breaking and bobbing Earth a new god appeared. This one (though they weren’t named by any of their older siblings) was Kuni-no-toko-tachi, or in other words, the Ever-Standing Land. A little while later came Toyo-kumo-nu, which meant Abundant Clouds Moor. Both of these gods, following the example set by their unenthusiastic elder siblings, hastily leaped up to Heaven and hid themselves away as well.

 _Things are getting rather cramped up here,_ Ame-no-Minakanushi-no-kami noted in mild distaste.

Pity them. It was about to get a lot worse.

Whatever power was creating _kami_ was getting a taste for it, which ended up fortunate for the _kami_ but not so much for solitude-craving Heavenly Deities who believed in ‘less is more.’ Maybe it was disappointed by the serene apathy of its version 1.0 productions. Maybe it realized that creating perfectly balanced beings was not the best way to inspire change and excitement. Whatever the reason, when the next batch of gods turned up, they were, to put it mildly, _different_.

In their hidden pocket of Heaven, Kamimusubi-no-kami nudged their siblings. _Look,_ they said, peering out at the broader Heavens. _These new ones are strange._

The two newest _kami_ were different from the originals. While the _kami_ up to now were complete in and of themselves, perfectly harmonized between the Active and the Passive elements, the Yin and the Yang, this newest generation was a pair. One of the _kami_ carried the Active element. The other one carried the Passive. They were each unbalanced, in and of themselves. Only together were they harmonious.

 _They’re deformed!_ Takamimusubi-no-kami said in a strangled voice. _Half! They’re cut in half!_

 _Oh, that’s interesting. One wonders what the point of that is,_ Kamimusubi-no-kami mused.

Before the Heavenly Deities had managed to grow accustomed to this shocking development, another pair popped up. These, too, were like the first in that they were divided. Then another pair popped up. Then another pair. Then‒

 _One begins to sense a trend,_ Kamimusubi-no-kami said.

In short order, there were five pairs of male and female _kami_ milling about, inspecting themselves with careful curiosity. Each pair had an obvious resemblance to each other, marking them as different from their siblings. There was the oldest, U-hiji-ni-no-kami and Sa-hiji-ni-no-kami, Little Floating Mud God and Little Silted Mud Goddess. Then there was Tsuni-guhi-no-kami and Iku-guhi-no-kami, Swelling Tip God and Thriving Tip Goddess. Then there was Oho-to-no-ji-no-kami and Oho-to-no-be-no-kami, Great Entry Elder God and Great Entry Elder Goddess. Then Omo-daru-no-kami and Aya-kashiko-ne-no-kami, Entirely Engorged God and Awesome Indeed Goddess. Then there was—

 _You’re not even trying anymore,_ Kamimusubi-no-kami said with exasperation. _You’re just throwing words at them to see what will stick. You should be ashamed._

 _They’re perfectly good names,_ Takamimusubi-no-kami said. They sounded a bit defensive.

Kamimusubi-no-kami pinched the bridge of their divine nose.

(You and I, being fully conscious of certain biological realities, might look at the increasingly salacious implications of those name translations and guffaw privately into our hands. Histories remain mute on the subject of how they were inspired, but one has to suspect a disgruntled scholar somewhere was having an off day when he wrote them down.)

 _Seven generations of them_ , Ame-no-Minakanushi-no-kami counted with dismay. 

_Five pairs, two individuals— surely that's twelve total?_ Takamimusubi-no-kami said.

_One should count the pairs as single generations each. Anyway, they will not be Heavenly Deities._

_It isn’t as though there’s anything special about being a Heavenly Deity,_ Kamimusubi-no-kami argued.

 _Unacceptable!_ Ame-no-Minakanushi-no-kami roused themselves far enough to stamp their metaphorical foot. _We are the Heavenly Deities. Because we were first. They may be the seven Divine Generations, and that’s all there is to it. Twelve is a terrible number._

They were going to need more room.

### FOOTNOTES

1\. Japanese pronouns are complicated. Barring what I am told is a relatively recent grammatical evolution, Japanese tends to avoid the use of explicit pronouns in the way of English: I, me, mine. Instead, they're implied in sentence structure and word form. The example I was personally lectured about is emotions. One might say "am happy," which obviously implies that "I" am happy. However, the inclusion of the 'I' is considered unnecessary and, in some areas, even _gauche_. There are all sorts of cultural reasons and implications regarding that. Personally, I'm just finding it a pain in the ass. ↩

2\. 天之御中主神 (Ame-no-mi-naka-nushi-kami) - literally: Heaven-of-Respect-Middle-Lord-Kami. In Japanese, the possessive and subject are switched; so 'Heaven-of-Respect' would be translated in English to 'Respect of Heaven' or 'Heaven's Respect. ↩

3\. 高御産巣日神 (Taka-mi-musubi-no-kami) - literally: High-Respect-Produce/Birth-Kami. I don't know why I'm writing this out. While individual characters have their own meaning, combinations of them also create specific words, so 'literally' translating the name is about as useful as saying the word 'god' is 'literally the 7th, 15th, and 4th letters of the English alphabet arranged in that order.' It's about as useful as a poodle to the face, though at least the poodle might be pleased to meet you. ↩

4\. 神産巣日神 (Kami-musubi-no-kami) - literally: _Kami_ (Sacred)-Produce/Birth-Kami. Redundant? Bite your tongue. There are some scholars that claim Kami-musubi-no-kami is actually female, because of alleged children borne later in the narrative. These same scholars suggest Takamimusubi-no-kami is male, for the selfsame reason. All I have to say about that is _‒_ look, paramecium manage just fine, okay? _I'm_ not saying a god has to have a sex in order to have children. Are you? ↩

5\. 宇摩志阿斯訶備比古遅神 (Uma-shi-ashi-kabi-hi-ko-ji-no-kami) - literally: Heaven— no. You know what? Forget this. Eight million kami in Japan. I refuse to translate every single name character for character. Life is too short. My brain is too little. There's a neat reference at [Japanese-Wiki](https://japanese-wiki-corpus.github.io/Shinto/Umashiashikabihikoji.html) if you want. Count me out of it. Maybe I'll do super important ones in the future? Maybe? Ah bah, I have a headache.↩

### ADDITIONAL NOTES

  * In terms of pronunciation, Japanese is one of the easiest languages out there. Nothing like English, with its inconsistencies: the 'wind' that blows vs. the 'wind' that involves cranks, or the 'lead' that one does with soldiers vs. the 'lead' that so often killed them. And what about 'I before E except after C?' What is this bullshit? I do bite my tongue at you, sirrah! Whatever its faults, Japanese is much more sensible. With maybe one exception, the letters in Japanese stick to whatever sound they're assigned, end of sentence. Thus, using the standard Romaji (i.e. 'English alphabet') transliteration of Japanese: 
    * The 'a' in Japanese words always sounds like 'ah' as in 'par,' except short, like the 'u' in 'putt.'
    * The 'e' sounds like 'eh' as in 'pen' or 'when.'
    * The 'i' always sounds like 'ee' as in the 'e' in 'we.'
    * The 'o' always sounds like 'oh' as in 'port'
    * The 'u' always sounds like a short 'oo' as in the 'u' in 'put'
    * Thus, as an example, 'Ame-no-mi-naka-nushi' comes out 'Ah-meh-noh-mee-nah-kah-noo-shee.' More or less. And 'karaoke' is pronounced 'kah-rah-oh-keh.' I do not know where you people come up with 'keh-ree-oh-kee.' You are all functionally insane. 
    * On a completely related note, 'Harry Potter' set in Japanese crossovers (I'm looking at you, Naruto) is amusing because the name 'Harry' is so often transliterated to 'Hari.' It's well-intentioned, but only makes sense if the name is pronounced 'Hah-ree' in English. ('Hah' as in 'Harmony' as opposed to 'Hair' as in 'Harry.') In terms of phonetic rendering, in Romaji transliteration it'd be more likely to be written 'Heri,' which would sound closer to the English as 'Heh-ree.' 
      * This is all the more satisfying in that 'heri' could be written 減り ('heri') which means 'decrease,' or written in plain kana as ヘリ, which basically sounds out the syllables and means 'edge,' as in the edge of landmarks (borders and boundaries, for example) or fabric. I noticed jisho.org also lists a definition of 'edging' which is, strictly speaking, accurate as a noun. However, given how so many Harry Potter fics end up, there's probably something to be said for a cross-language pun that I don't need to explain here, do I?
  * The Creation myth that's laid out here comes from the 古事記 (Kojiki) 'The Record of Ancient Matters,' compiled in 711 - 712 CE at the orders of the Empress Genmei. A variation of this Creation myth is documented in the 日本書紀 (Nihon Shoki) 'The Chronicles of Japan,' compiled in 720 CE. That version documents the three first Heavenly Deities as coming from that magic reed shoot and being "purely male." They're also given different names. Personally, I prefer the Kojiki version. Not to project anything, but if _I_ were a god, being born from a reed shoot as 'purely male' would honestly just be embarrassing. You might as well jump fully-formed out of a bratwurst and swing your sausage, because at that point subtlety is something that happens to Other People.




End file.
